If We Could Stop The World Tonight
by flowerrrs25
Summary: Austin finds an old friend of Ally's. Auslly. One-shot.


Disclaimer: Austin and Ally isn't mine.

A/N: this is another one of those "I have two hours and I'm going to stay up until 2 am what kind of nonsense can I come up with" fics so be forewarned it's just fluff and banter

* * *

"Ally," he whispers.

Nothing.

He tries again, a little louder. "Ally."

Still nothing.

"Allllyyyyyyyyy," he whines loudly, shaking her shoulder gently.

She gasps and shoots up to a seated position, almost knocking her head with his.

"What?" she shrieks, and he looks at her with very wide eyes, having never heard such a sound come out of her mouth before.

She stares back at him and blushes slightly before clearing her throat.

"What?" she asks, her voice at a normal pitch, but he can tell she's irritated.

"I want you to come outside with me," he whispers. "And shhh. Trish and Dez are both still sleeping."

They both look over to the other side of the bus where their friends are both lightly snoring happily before turning back to each other.

"Outside? Austin, it's—" she looks at the phone that's under her pillow. "—three twenty four in the morning and you have a show tomorrow and—"

"Please?" he whispers, and she looks into dark eyes that she's never been very good at resisting.

She attempts to resist anyway, but lasts less than twenty seconds before she finds herself sliding out of the bunk, slipping her feet into a pair of sandals.

He takes her hand in his as he navigates them through the dark and quiet bus, letting go only to open the door so they can both step out. He takes her hand again as he leads her…somewhere, but she's so tired that she can't bring herself to question it that much. She stumbles sleepily behind him, hardly paying attention to her surroundings, until she finds herself standing in soft grass at the edge of a pond.

"What—"

"You remember Pickles?" he asks quietly, as he sits down in the grass. He pats the space next to him, looking up at her, and she joins him, her tired limbs grateful for the rest.

"The goose? Of course," she replies sleepily. "What about him?"

"Do you miss him?"

She frowns. "Maybe a little, sometimes, but—"

"He's right there," he says softly, pointing, and she follows his outstretched arm until she sees the faint outline of a goose that's swimming at the opposite edge of the pond.

"What?" she whispers. "That's…that's _Pickles_? My Pickles?"

She turns to look at him, but he's still staring out over the water, a small smile on his face. "Remember how he went to the animal reserve in Miami?"

She nods.

"Well, it turned out that they shut down about six months ago because of financial issues, so they sent all the animals to a bunch of places across the country," he continues. "And Pickles was sent here, to Denver. It took me three months to track him down because can you believe that they don't keep very good records for transporting geese?" he asks, sounding highly affronted.

"And then I had to call the three different reserves in Denver and then finally, the last one I called had the original paperwork for Pickles and they even looked at his tag to double check. So I went and visited the reserve this afternoon," he explains. "That's why I didn't pick up my phone when you guys were calling me."

She can hardly breathe as she listens to what he's telling her.

"I met with this really cool lady that's in charge of taking care of all the birds and she showed me Pickles and she told me that he likes to hang out here really early in the mornings and it was just convenient that our bus happens to be parked ten minutes away from this pond and—"

She cuts him off by _tackling_ him, and he lets out a surprised yelp as he falls back into the grass.

"You found Pickles," she breathes, staring down at him from her position on top of his chest. "You found Pickles and you brought me to Pickles. At three thirty in the morning. Pickles the goose."

He smiles at her. "I did," he says. "You wanna go say hi?"

"Really?"

"Really."

He sits up, forcing her to do so as well, and he holds out his hand for her after he stands up, pulling her to her feet. He doesn't let her go as they walk around the edge of the calm water but finally releases her when they get to the other side.

"Go on," he encourages. "There's no way he forgot you."

She walks closer to where Pickles is, now out of the water and resting on the grass.

"Pickles?" she says hesitantly, kneeling on the ground a few feet away. And somehow, someway, the bird opens his eyes and waddles over to her. He honks loudly at her and she laughs as she strokes the soft feathers on his neck. "I can't believe it's you!" she says, and he honks again, even louder this time. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!"

He nuzzles into her hand and she giggles as he honks one more time, the loud noise echoing through the otherwise silent night air.

Ally sits cross-legged on the grass and pets her former muse and thinks about the fact that her current muse is responsible for her current happiness.

And that she is in fact, in love with her muse.

Her human muse, that is. Not her goose-muse.

She feels Austin's eyes on her as he lets her have a few moments alone with her former companion that used to keep her company as she wrote songs and poured out her feelings and listened to her when nobody else would.

A few minutes pass silently as she absentmindedly runs her fingers through soft, white feathers, reflecting on her memories with Pickles, before Austin came into her life and turned it upside down.

"Ally?" he says quietly, interrupting her reverie. "We should probably get going. It's past four."

She nods.

"Okay, Pickles," she whispers. "I have to go now. But I'm so happy I got to see you again and I can't believe you remembered me!"

She blinks back tears. "And it was all because of Austin. He found you and he brought me to you and I'll never be able to thank him enough. You know a lot about me, don't you? I told you a lot of stuff when I'd sit and write at the mall pond."

She doesn't know how weird it is to be talking like this to a goose, but this isn't just any goose. It's _Pickles_. "There are new things I want to tell you, though. I got over my stage fright! Can you believe that?"

Pickles honks quietly and she grins.

"And I just got a recording contract and I'm working on my very own album," she continues. "And…" she leans in close and whispers. "I think I maybe might kind of really, really like the guy that found you."

He honks loudly, the loudest honk of the night, and she laughs out loud and leans forward to wrap her arms around him. "I'll miss you, Pickles," she says, and then stands up. "But now I know where you are and maybe someday I'll be able to see you again!"

Pickles lets out one last, sad honk and she strokes his head one last time before she turns around and walks back toward Austin.

"Thank you," she says, and hugs him tightly. He seems a little startled at the sudden gesture but recovers quickly as he drops his chin to her shoulder. "This is the most incredible thing anyone has ever done for me," she whispers. "You're so sweet and nice and amazing and this was amazing and you're amazing and—"

"I'm glad you liked it, Ally," he mumbles, laughing quietly. "You wanna go back to the bus?"

She nods into his chest and he lightly runs his fingers down her arm before grasping her hand tightly in his again as he leads her around the pond. They get to the other side and then she tugs on his hand to stop him.

He turns to her, a questioning look on his face, but she doesn't answer him, instead letting go of his hand so she can sink down onto the cool grass. She lies down and he looks down at her, a little surprised, but then he shrugs and joins her, his arm pressed tightly against hers.

She turns on her side to face him and he turns his head so he can see her.

"Any reason we're laying here?" he asks.

"The bus is kind of stuffy," she answers. "And this grass is soft."

He nods and she turns onto her back as they both stare up at the inky sky above them, soft light just beginning to emerge at the horizon.

"I missed you, Ally," he says suddenly. "I missed you so much."

She closes her eyes for a second. "I missed you, too, Austin. I thought I would be okay for three months—"

"Ninety-four days," he corrects.

She smiles. "I thought I would be okay for ninety-four days but I barely made it halfway before _all_ I could think about was seeing you." She pauses. "And…and now that I'm here and I don't have to leave…everything just feels _right_ again."

He rises up on one elbow and looks down at her with eyes so serious that her breath catches. "I looked over at your bunk to make sure you were still here at least twelve times the first night," he confesses. "I couldn't believe you were actually there."

She nods. "I did the exact same thing."

He laughs. "When did we go from being Austin and Ally to being _AustinandAlly_?"

"The first time you kissed me," she answers honestly, and his eyes widen. "But…if I'm being really honest, it was probably way before that."

He just stares at her for three beats of her heart, then four, and she waits with bated breath because she thinks she knows what's coming and finally, _finally, _on the fifth, he kisses her.

She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him a little closer, threading her fingers through his hair as he deepens the kiss and she briefly wonders why they kept themselves from doing this because it feels like she just found a piece of herself that she didn't even know was missing. And now she's pretty sure she won't be able to go another day without it.

He pulls back after a minute and then kisses the corner of her mouth, her jaw, the spot right below her ear, as she tightens her arms around him. "Ally," he whispers, pressing his lips to her pulse point. She wonders briefly if he can feel how quickly her heart is beating but then his lips are on hers again and she doesn't really want to think anymore.

And then he pulls back and looks down at her with nervous eyes and she's positive she's looking back up at him with the same worried expression. Because they've tried this before and it didn't work and what if they only feel this way just because they haven't seen each other in so long and—

"I've wanted to do that since the minute after we broke up," he confesses quietly, exhaling loudly as he moves to lie on his back next to her again.

But she follows him, propping herself up on an elbow so she can look at him.

"You what?" she whispers. "Really?"

He lifts his hand to cup her cheek. "I told you that you make me feel like I'm shooting fireworks out of my chest," he says, giving her a small smile. "You think I'd ever want to let go of that feeling?"

She swallows. The note. The _note_.

"You have no idea how many times I read and reread and rerereread that," she says as he moves his hand into her hair. "I carried it around with me everywhere."

He grins at her. "Got you all hung up on me, didn't I?"

She blushes. "I'm not the one who hugged a security guard."

"Oh, yeah, because twirling the delivery guy is soooo much better," he says, rolling his eyes.

She laughs and lowers her head to press her lips softly to his cheek, smirking when she hears his breath hitch. "Are you positive you're not the one hung up on me?" she whispers into his ear.

"Pretty sure I'll always be hung up on you, Ally," he mumbles, and she quickly lifts her head to look at him, her heart pounding.

"Austin…"

"Ally," he says mockingly.

"What are we doing?" she asks quietly.

She swears she sees something like disappointment flash through his eyes. "This is kind of crazy, isn't it?"

She's about to agree with him but his words trigger something inside her. This isn't crazy. She doesn't feel crazy. She felt crazy when they weren't together but now…now she feels whole. Complete. Sane. Not crazy.

"Ally?" he asks, his voice hesitant.

She realizes she must have been staring at him.

"It's not crazy," she says suddenly. "_We're_ not crazy. You and me? Us? This isn't crazy."

"Um…"

She nods to herself. "Oh wow, I must sound ridiculous, right? But you…when I'm with you, I feel crazy. The good kind of crazy. Not the bad kind, not the kind where I'd be angry and chewing on my hair and cleaning everything in sight. You make me feel the good kind of crazy. The kind of crazy where my heart beats out of my chest when you look at me in that one way when you think I don't notice. The kind of crazy where all I have to do is _think_ about you to be able to sing in front of ten thousand people."

She pauses, taking in his wide eyes and growing smile.

"The kind of crazy where I think it's crazy that I'm not with you and you're not with me."

And then she kisses him.

He immediately wraps his arms around her and shifts to his side so he can pull her closer and her fingers are in his hair and her legs are tangled with his and it's slow and soft and everything is just _right_.

When they pull apart they're both breathless and she just stares at him for a moment.

He grins. "I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Is this more or less crazy than the fact that you used to write songs with a goose?"

"What do you mean 'used to'? Did you forget?"

He cocks his head at her, a confused expression on his face.

"I have a new goose now." She leans forward and kisses him softly. "His name is Austin."

* * *

so there you go!

thank you so much for reading and reviewing!


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